Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for capturing electromagnetic radiation, such as light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation, from an object and extracting object geometric information from the received radiation, in the field of three-dimensional imaging and holography. The invention also relates to a system and method of performing those functions.
Discussion of the Background
Conventional techniques for capturing three-dimensional information from physical objects include holography, range-finding, and tomography. However, conventional techniques may disadvantageously require an active illumination source, or place limitations on a light source (e.g., may require coherent light, a point light source or a bandwidth limited light), place limitations on movement of the object or the sensing apparatus (e.g., require that the object and sensing device be stationary, or require that they be moved in a predetermined fashion), may require complex electromagnetic radiation assemblies (e.g., complex arrangement of mirrors and lenses), and may produce poor quality three-dimensional images having low resolution or low fidelity.